Scientists dig into pile of comet dust specks ST. LOUIS...

February 21, 2006

Scientists dig into pile of comet dust specks ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Scientists said Monday they have begun slicing and dicing the first of hundreds of microscopic specks of comet dust, virtually unchanged since the birth of the solar system. Preliminary analysis shows the dust, captured when the robotic Stardust spacecraft flew past the comet Wild 2 in January 2004, is unmistakably cometary in origin, said Don Brownlee, a University of Washington astronomer. The initial work on the samples shows they contain glassy materials, crystals like olivine and various trace elements, Brownlee said. Each tiny grain is being sliced, sometimes into hundreds of sections, for detailed analysis.